Dissertation Defenses

Doctoral Dissertation Announcement

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Candidate: Jeffrey M. Leslie

Degree of: Doctor of Philosophy

Department: Educational Leadership, Research, and Technology

Title: Correlates of Teachers’ Job Satisfaction: A Hierarchical Linear Modeling Study Using 2003-2004 Schools and Staffing Survey

Committee:
Dr. Jianping Shen, Chair
Dr. Van Cooley
Dr. Gary Campbell

Date: Wednesday, September 9, 2009 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
3208 Sangren Hall

Abstract:
This study examines the correlates of teachers’ job satisfaction. Based on the literature, it proposes that teacher satisfaction is a function of, among others, the following school process variables: (a) school influence, (b) classroom control, (c) student behavior, (d) parental support, (e) staff collegiality, (f) career/working conditions, (g) administrative communication, and (h) administrative support. I first decomposed the amount of variance attributable to the teacher level and the school level. Since there is a significant amount of variance at the school level, I then sought to determine whether, and if so, the above school process variables are associated with teachers’ job satisfaction. Although teacher job satisfaction has been researched using small samples, few studies use hierarchical linear modeling to analyze data from a large, nationally representative sample. This study is based on the data from the 2003-2004 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. The study includes data from 40,770 teachers and 7,670 principals.
To explore the relationships, I built four nested models: (a) the unconditional model, (b) the control model, (c) the principal’s education and experiences model, and (d) the school process model. Each model uses hierarchical linear modeling to account for commonalities that teachers have within schools and is compared to the unconditional model. The school process model, building on earlier models, is controlled for school demographics, teacher demographics and preparation, and principal’s education and work experiences.
The results indicate that there is a significant amount of variance attributable to the school level. Although several of the demographic variables have statistically significant association with teachers’ overall job satisfaction, their sizes of association are much smaller than those for the school processes variables. Six of the eight school process variables — school influence, classroom control, student behavior, administrative support, staff collegiality, and career and working conditions — have statistically significant positive associations with teachers’ overall job satisfaction. The school process model explains 99.7% of the between-school variance of the unconditional model. The findings indicate the importance of the school process for teachers’ job satisfaction. Policy implications of the study are discussed.